Synopsis
Three generations of women named Mary choose husbands. In the 1870’s, dancing the polka, Mary I tells the man she will marry that they love as no none else has ever loved. In the 1890’s, waltzing, Mary II choses the more aggressive of her two suitors. She tells him that they love as no none else has ever loved. In the present, the youth dance to jazz. Mary III (Boardman) is in no hurray to marry either of her suitors, assertive Hal (Haines) or quieter, gentler Lynn (Lyon). The young people in their circle, dance, drink, and woo into the night. Their friends Max Cooper (Collier) and Tish Tatum (Garon) are in love, but dance with other people.
Mary compares the approaches of Hal and Lynn, but says that a woman cannot be sure from the courting what kind of husband she will have for the remainder of her life. Mary proposes that the five of them go off on a camping trip where they will be alone and can observe each other more closely. They all agree.
The next morning Mary tells her mother and grandmother about the proposed trip. Granny is scandalized. Mary II does not approve. She trusts her daughter, but thinks the trip will open Mary to scandal and danger. They will not tell Mary’s father, who is deeply concerned with his business, about the idea.
Mary ignores her mother’s warning, and the young people set up their tents near a lake. Mary, Tish, and Lynn go to bed. Hal and Max shoot dice near the fire. Hal proposes that they all go swimming. Mary and Lynn decline, but Tish agrees, and the three put on their swimsuits and jump in the lake. Max and Tish play in the water. Hal goes back and calls to Mary. She refuses to come out, and he opens her tent and enters. She tells him to leave, but he presses her. Lynn comes from his tent. Suddenly, Mary collapses in a faint.
Mary does not awake. They carry her home. At her house she awakens and tells them that the faint was the easiest way to get them home. Max and Tish decide that they should get married and leave. Hal and Lynn go home.
Mary’s brother, Bobby, comes home. Mary’s mother arrives. Mary and Bobby hide. As her mother is searching for Mary, her father arrives home and learns that Mary may have gone off on the trip. He is angry and blames Mary II for the poor upbringing she gave their daughter. Mary II is hurt and angry. The parents get into a fight in which they denounce each other and their marriage. Mary and Bobby are very upset and scandalized by this quarrel.
Mary come out of hiding and accuses her parents of hypocrisy. Mary II decides to leave home. As she is packing she goes to the bathroom to take some nerve tonic. She grabs the wrong bottle, starts to drink, screams and collapses. Her family rushes in and believes she tried to commit suicide. Her husband hugs her and confesses his love. She awakens to tell them of her mistake. Mary and Bobby are gratified by this change in the attitudes of their parents and leave them alone.
Mary thinks things over and despite the early hour, calls one of the young men to come and prepare for their wedding. It is Lynn, who is overjoyed, and as they kiss, Mary says that they love as no one else ever has.
Discussion
The behavior of contemporary youth (of the 1920’s) is introduced as having advanced from the ways of their parents and grandparents. Modern youth are more open to interactions between the sexes and are less interested in finding a partner and getting engaged. These young people get together, dance and have fun, and express little interest in marriage. Mary, her beaus Lynn and Hal, and her friends Max and Tish are shown as living a life free of commitments. Mary questions the importance of marriage. However, despite their initial behavior and statements about freedom from marriage, all the main characters quickly choose the conventional path and plan their marriages. The third generation does not differ from their parents and grandparents.
The behavioral interplay is between the parents who seem alienated after more than twenty years of marriage. The supposed suicide attempt of Mary II brings out her husband’s love. Stress overcomes his seeming detachment. Mary is enlightened about the important interactions in a marriage and chooses quiet, reliable Lynn.
The source play (Mary the Third) was by Rachel Crothers (1878-1958) whose first play The Three of Us was written in 1906. The plot begins on a tease of sexual freedom in contemporary youth, but quickly becomes conventional. Crothers’ dramatic works involved the dilemmas of young women. Several of her plays were made into films, including Let Us be Gay (1929), When Ladies Meet (two versions 1933 and 1941), Mother Carey’s Chickens (1938), and Susan and God (1940). Mary the Third had 152 Broadway performances in 1923. Ben Lyon was in the Broadway cast playing Lynn, the same role he had in the film.
King Vidor made his first film, a semi-documentary about the 1900 Hurricane in Galveston (1913) at age 19. In the early twenties, working for Goldwyn Pictures, he directed a series of well-made features, including The Sky Pilot (1921), Love Never Dies (1921), Peg-o-My Heart (1922), and Wild Oranges (1924). In 1924, Goldwyn Pictures merged with Metro Pictures and Louis B Mayer Pictures to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Vidor, who had a contract with Goldwyn, became a director for MGM. Wine of Youth was his first film for the new company. Between 1924 and 1929, Vidor directed several masterpieces of silent filmmaking, including The Big Parade (1925), The Crowd (1928), and Show People (1928).
Divorced from his first wife, actress Florence Vidor, Vidor married Eleanor Boardman, the star of Wine of Youth, in 1926. She starred for him in The Crowd, eschewing glamorizing make-up for her role as a middle class wife and mother.
Eleanor Boardman was an aspiring stage actress in New York when she was seen by a talent scout for Goldwyn Pictures and signed to a contract. She made her first film in 1922. By 1924, Boardman had appeared in eight films, mostly as a supporting actor. In Wine of Youth, her first for MGM and her first of five with director King Vidor, she has a starring role. She appeared in a few early talkies. After her divorce from Vidor, Boardman moved to Europe. She made a final film, The Three Corned Hat (1935), in France with her future second husband, Harry d’Abbadie d’Arrast, and retired from the screen.
William Haines was a popular leading actor at MGM. In films such as Tell It To the Marines (1926), Brown of Harvard (1926), and West Point (1927) his youthful characters start off as self-centered braggarts. During the course of the film, Haines learns the value of thoughtfulness and courage and, at the conclusion, redeems himself. Haines made a few talkies for MGM in the early thirties. In 1934 he made two final films at low budget studio Mascot Pictures. Acknowledging that he was gay and had a male lover, Haines quit acting and opened an interior decorating business that he maintained for nearly four decades.
Ben Lyon was only twenty one when he appeared in the Broadway production of Mary the Third. He repeated his role for the film. Never a star, Lyon was a young, attractive and affable actor. During the silent era, he provided handsome and charming support for numerous leading ladies, including Barbara Lamar, Viola Dana, Anna Q. Nilsson, Blanche Sweet and May McAvoy. He easily transitioned to talkies and continued as a serviceable leading man until the mid-Thirties when his career waned. He had married actress Bebe Daniels in 1930, and her career declined about the same time as his. In the late thirties they moved to England. Their film careers in England were not very successful, but during the war they had a radio show, Hi, Gang!, that was very popular with the English home audience. Lyon made his final film (The Lyons Abroad) in 1955.
Further Reading